"That on the good ground are they which in an honest andgood heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forthfruit with patience."Luke 8:15 .

WE RECOGNIZE these words as a portion of
our Lord's parable of The Sower.
A man
went out to sow his field.
As he scattered
his seed, some fell on one kind of soil and
some on anothersome on thorny ground,
some on stony ground, some on the hard,
beaten pathway, and some on good ground.
The good ground brought forthsome
thirty-fold, some sixty-fold and some one
hundred-fold.

According to the Master's interpretation of this
parable, the good seed represents the Message of the
Kingdom, which as it falls here and there appeals to
some hearts differently from what it does to others.
That
seed falling upon the beaten pathway represented the
Message as heard by persons into whose hearts it did not
enter at all.
They simply heard with the outer ear and
forgot.
It made no impression.
The Lord said that the
reason for this was that the Adversary came and caught
the seed away.
It had not penetrated even the surface
of the hard ground.
The conditions were not favorable
for its entrance into the heart and the hearers soon
forgot all that they had heard.
The wiles of the Adversary
would always, if possible, prevent the seed from
entering the heart and taking root.

The heart that is like the thorny ground is favorable
as to soil.
It is good ground, with fine prospects for
developing the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
But it is infested
with thorns, which are not removed, but are permitted
to remain and so choke the wheat.
These thorns
are not the frivolous pleasures of lifetheaters, cards,
dancing, etc.; but, as the Lord explains in the parable,
they are the cares of life, the ambitions of life, the deceitfulness
of richesperhaps the feeling that if they can
accumulate wealth they can serve the Lord's Cause the
better.
This tendency to go out after other things allows
a condition to obtain that is unfavorable to the wheat
class.
These may be good business men, fine politicians,
or they may be immersed in some kind of study.
Others
of them may be fine housekeepers and have a pride as to
how well things are kept, or they may be leaders in
society or in works of reform, etc.
All these are the
thorns of the parable.
A heart of this kind does not
bring forth fruit, because the ground, while good, is
otherwise occupied, and the Message of the Kingdom
and its work are crowded out to a large degree, so that
no fruit is brought to perfection.

HONESTY A BASIC QUALITY

Then we come to the "good ground" class of this
parable, ground where the soil is not only good, but
cleared of all noxious weeds which would prevent the
proper growth of the wheat seed.
This condition represents
entire consecration to God.
Everything which
would hinder has been cast out.
The cares of this life
are not permitted to enter this heart and choke the Word.
Such a one has made a bona-fide contract with the Lord
and knows when he is keeping it; and he will keep it.
He has the proper quality or depth of character and more
or less of ability.
And there is the special trait of thorough
honesty, loyalty.

Amongst those of the class who are styled the "good
ground," we find different conditions in lifenot many
noble, but some noble; not many great, but some great;
not many learned, but some learned; not many wise, but some wise.
But they must all be good of heart, and they
must be honest, else they could not bring forth the necessary
fruitagehonesty being the most important feature
of all, with a degree of intelligence and appreciation
of the Truth.
We see, then, how this class might bring
forth varying amounts of fruitage, according to circumstances,
conditions and ability.
But they are in the right
heart condition to bring forth their very bestsome
thirty-fold, some sixty-fold and some a hundred-fold.

In the picture we see that the Truth is represented by
the seed, and we see that the individuals are also represented
by the seed.
The thought is that a grain of
Truth is planted, and that in an honest heart it produces
a character which is in harmony with the Truth.
That
seed of Truth is the Message of the Kingdom, the Word
of the Kingdomnot a truth about the philosophies of
men or some scientific truth, but a particular truthnot
something that ignores God's Plan and purports to be a
better plan than that which God has arranged, but the
one particular thingthe Word of the Kingdom.

FOUR HUNDRED MILLION TARES

It seems remarkable that with so many that are called Christian peoplenumbering now four hundred millionsthey know so little about the Kingdom!
The vast majority
have learned but very little of it, if anything.
This is
manifest when we look over in Europe and see millions
fighting to the death, when we realize that other millions
are ready to fight here in the United States also.
This
is because they have not become New Creatures.
As the
natural seed enters the ground, sprouts and brings forth
something that is fostered and developed by the soil, so
the good seed of the Truth in the proper heart brings
forth good fruit.
The Message of the Kingdom brings
forth results in harmony with its nature.
It reaches the
proper class and brings them to an attitude where God
accepts them as New Creatures.
These New Creatures
are the children of the Kingdom; and these children of
the Kingdom are the wheat that will be garnered.
"Then
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom."

Our Lord in another parable shows us a different kind
of seedtare seed.
This tare-seed looks a little like
wheat.
It is not the true seednot the seed of the
Kingdom.
It may be a seed, or message, of morality or
purity of life or total abstinence from intoxicating
liquors, etc.
No matter; it will not produce the Kingdom
class.
The only seed which will produce this class
is the good seed, the true Kingdom Message.

As we look about in the world we see that the great
Enemy oversowed this wheat-field of the Kingdom with
false seed, the darnel, the tare-seed, as represented by
these various messages that have gone forth throughout
the world.
This seed does not necessarily bring forth
bad people.
They are people who are workers for various
things, some of them more or less good, but they are not
children of the Kingdom.
At the present time these
tares are, many of them, influential.
And the whole four
hundred millions of them represent, not the true wheat-field,
but merely an imitation, usurping the place really
belonging to the true wheat class.

TIME REQUIRED TO DEVELOP FRUIT

In this Harvest time, now about ended, a separation
has been taking place between the true wheat and the
tares.
The true wheat are being gathered into the
garner, while the tares are being bound in bundles to be [R5737 : page 229] burnednot literally burned, but destroyed as tares, as
imitation wheat.
They will soon cease to call themselves
Christians.
They will recognize themselves as what they
have always beenparts of the world.
Many of these
are Church members, but are purely of the world and its
spirit.
They discount the true wheat, and consider them
a little queer, fanatics.

Many of these tares do not know what they are.
But
those who have received the Message of the Kingdom
into good and honest hearts will bring forth fruitage in
harmony therewith.
It requires time to develop the right
fruit.
This class grow daily in knowledge, in love, and are
building one another up in the most holy faith.
They
also do good unto all as they have opportunity.
This is
the whole work which God is expecting of them.
These
are the ones who will ere long be gathered into the
Heavenly Kingdom beyond the veil.

After the fire of this "Day of Wrath" shall have
burned up this "present evil world," and burned out all
the roots of pride, then will come the great time of blessing
for the world of mankind.
The great plowshare of
trouble will prepare humanity for the great seed-sowing
of the near future.
It will take a thousand years to bring
forth the glorious crop of the Millennium.
Those gathered
then will not be wheat, but the Restitution class;
wheat being used in the parables of our Lord to represent
the spiritual class, the saints of the Gospel Age.